FAQ

No — it's a paid, one-time purchase. No subscription, no per-message caps, and no account required to use it. You own your copy outright instead of renting access to a metered service.

"I always enjoyed roleplaying on other platforms, but I could never justify paying $20 a month for it. I just wanted to pay once and be done — and when that option didn't really exist, I decided to build it myself, adding in everything I always wished those other platforms had." — Samuraikid11, creator of ZephInk

Every update is included with your purchase. If you'd like to help fund development, there will also be an optional supporter tier with perks like early beta access and a vote on what gets built next. It never unlocks app features: everyone who buys ZephInk gets the whole app.

Only briefly, the first time — to download the model ZephInk runs on (and the voice engine, if you use it). "Embedded" means ZephInk hosts and runs that model in-process for you, not that one ships inside the app with nothing to download. Once it's downloaded, everything runs fully offline. An internet connection is only needed ongoing if you choose the optional Cloud API instead.

OS: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit).
GPU: not required — ZephInk runs on CPU or through the Cloud API with no dedicated graphics card. A GPU with 6GB+ VRAM is recommended if you want faster local generation and voice output.
Storage: a few GB free for the app, the built-in model, and the voice engine.

Yes — your stories, characters, and settings are stored locally on your own machine. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you deliberately choose a Cloud API and provide your own key.

Not to use the app itself — there's no sign-in inside ZephInk. An account will only be needed here on this site: to buy and download ZephInk, and to submit characters, worlds or maps to the public Archive.

Yes. Point ZephInk at your own local LM Studio or Ollama server and any model you like, let the built-in Embedded option download and host a model for you with no separate app to install, or connect a Cloud API (OpenRouter, Groq, or OpenAI) with your own key.

Yes — local text-to-speech with reference-clip voice cloning (Chatterbox, MIT-licensed), or point voice generation at your own custom endpoint or a cloud TTS provider.

Community Sharing lets you export/import characters and Lorebooks between ZephInk installs today. Importing character cards from other roleplay formats is on the roadmap. You can also plan a story in a plain text template and load the whole thing into the New Story wizard in one go.

ZephInk is intended for adult users. Explicit and mature content options exist but are opt-in and off by default — you won't encounter them unless you deliberately enable them in Settings.

Yes — automatic updates are built in, with an optional Test/Beta channel if you want new features early.

ZephInk currently ships as a packaged Windows desktop app.